An existing walnut cake baking machine is independently manually supplied with a walnut grain one by one to thereby be operated. Here, a process of introducing walnut cake materials into a mold and a process of discharging a completely baked walnut cake in a heating process is performed by hands of a worker.
Therefore, in a place at which a lot of people are gathering, such as a highway service area, a station front, a terminal, an amusement park, or the like, in the case of installing a manual walnut cake baking machine in a manual mode, it was difficult to mass-produce the walnut cake, and since the entire process has been performed by hands of the worker, many workers have been unnecessarily required, thereby causing a manufacturing cost to increase and the worker to easily feel tired.
A patent regarding a walnut cake baking machine automated so as to make it possible to bake a lot of walnut cakes at the highway service area, the station front, the terminal, the amusement park, or the like a short time has been filed (Korean Patent Application No. 10-2008-0058765, hereinafter, referred to as “the related art”).
FIGS. 1 to 3 are views showing a walnut automatic supply apparatus according to the related art. Since descriptions of reference numerals that will not described below among reference numerals represented in FIGS. 1 to 3 was provided in the related art, descriptions thereof will be omitted.
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the walnut automatic supply apparatus 1 automatically supplying a walnut grain 9 to a mold 18 installed in a walnut cake baking machine 11 according to the related art is installed, and an upper portion of a body 6 is provided with the walnut automatic supplying apparatus 1, a kneading trough 12 having a quantitative feeder, and a container so as to allow the walnut grain 9, dough, and contents to be supplied to the mold 18 while repeating stop and movement of a plurality of molds 18 installed adjacent to each other in a row according to a program preset in a controlling part 22 in a state in which, although not shown in the accompanying drawings, a moving unit and a heating unit are installed in the body 6 in a box shape.
In addition, one side of the body 6 of the walnut cake baking machine 11 is installed with a walnut cake discharging arm 15 so as to separate and discharge completely baked walnut cake from the mold 18, and a front surface of the body 6 is attached with the controlling part 22, which is a control box, capable of the walnut automatic supply apparatus 1 and the walnut cake baking machine 11.
Therefore, before the dough and the contents are introduced into the mold 18 automatically moving and stopping on the body 6 of the walnut cake baking machine 11, walnut grain is automatically supplied to the mold 18.
Meanwhile, the walnut automatic supply apparatus 1 automatically supplying the walnut grain 9 is configured to include a vibration device 7, a walnut regular position confirming unit 2, a gate opening and closing unit 3, a walnut moving unit 4, and a gate opening and closing driving unit 5.
The vibration device 7 includes a vibration device support 14 vertically bent so as to have a predetermined height in order not to hinder the mold 18 moving on an upper surface of the body 6.
The vibration device 7 attached to an upper portion of the vibration device support 14 moves the walnut grain 9 filled therein to the walnut regular position confirming unit 2 in a row using vibration.
The vibration device 7, which has a cylindrical shape in which it has an opened upper surface, includes a vibration plate 29 installed on a bottom to which the walnut grain 9 filled therein are moved along a hopper 8 by the vibration and the hopper 8 spirally formed in an inner peripheral surface thereof so that the walnut grain may be moved to the walnut regular position confirming unit 2 positioned at an upper portion thereof by the vibration of the vibration plate 29.
In addition, an upper front end of the hopper 8 installed in the vibration device 7 is installed with the walnut regular position confirming unit 2 sensing whether or not the walnut grain arrives at the gate opening and closing unit 3, in order to supply the walnut grain 9 to the mold 18.
The walnut regular position confirming unit 2 is configured of a walnut entering check sensor (not shown) installed so as to be connected to an upper distal end of the hopper 8 of the vibration device 7 to sense that the walnut grain 9 enter the gate opening and closing unit 5 and the walnut regular position confirming unit 2 sensing whether or the walnut grain supplied to the gate opening and closing unit 3 are located at the gate opening and closing unit 3.
Further, in a state in which the supplied walnut grain is confirmed by the walnut regular position confirming unit 2, the gate opening and closing unit 3 supplying the walnut grain 9 to the walnut moving unit 4 opens a discharging gate (not shown) to supply the walnut grain 9.
Therefore, the gate opening and closing unit 3 includes a walnut discharging gate box 32 serially connected to the upper distal end of the hopper, the discharging gate having a one side hinge-fastened to a lower portion of the gate box and vertically rotating, and a gate operating wire 17 having both ends connected to each other fastened to a side of the discharging gate so as to be opened and closed by an operation of the gate opening and closing driving unit 5.
In addition, in order to return the discharging gate opened by pulling the gate operating wire 17, a side of the discharging gate box 32 and the side of the discharging gate is installed with a gate return spring 39 having fixed both ends.
The gate opening and closing driving unit 5 driving so as to vertically open and close the gate the gate opening and driving unit 3 connects a lower end thereof to one side end of the driving shaft 23 driving the quantitative feeder supplying the dough of the kneading trough to hinge-connected d a rotating operating hinge 24 thereto, and a upper end of the operating hinge 24 is connected to a link 25 connecting one sides to rotate together with each other.
In addition, a vertical bar 27 having a fixed lower distal end to move front and rear is fixed to the other side of the link 25, the gate operating wire 17 is fastened to an upper portion of the vertical bar 27 so as to be horizontally coupled thereto to open and close the discharging gate, and a horizontal bar 28 having a fixed bar 40 vertically stood is fixed to the other side end.
A moving block 26 fitted into the fixed bar 40 of the horizontal bar 28 to slidably move has a long hole formed therein in a length direction, and a rod 41 is attached to one side of the moving block 26 so as to slidably move together with each other.
The other distal end of the rod 41 has a walnut cake discharging cam 13 attached to a side of a walnut cake pipe fixed support 19 of the walnut moving unit 4 to rotate.
Further, in the walnut moving unit 4 supplying the walnut grain supplied by the gate opening and closing unit 3 to the mold 18, a walnut discharging slide 10 is positioned at a lower portion of the discharging gate to attach an upper portion thereof to the walnut discharging gate box 32 of the gate opening and closing unit 3 so that the walnut grain 9 slides.
In addition, the walnut cake pipe fixed support 19 attached to a front end of the vibration device support 14 is attached to a lower portion of the walnut discharging slide 10 so as to supply the walnut grain 9 sliding in a state in which they are separated apart from each other to the mold 18.
An inner portion of the walnut cake pipe fixed support 19 is connected to a walnut discharging funnel 16, and a lower portion of the walnut discharging funnel 16 is connected to a walnut discharging pipe and walnut discharging tube 21, sequentially.
In addition, the walnut automatic supply apparatus according to the related art includes the controlling part 22 controlling the vibration device 7, the walnut regular position confirming unit 2, and the gate opening and closing unit.
Therefore, according to the related art, in order to supply the walnut grain 9 to the mold automatically moving on the body 6, when the vibration device 7 vibrates in a state in which it stops before the dough filled in the kneading trough is supplied, the walnut grain 9 moves along the hopper 8 to the walnut regular position confirming unit 2, the gate opening and closing driving unit 5 is driven in a state in which the walnut grain is confirmed by the walnut entering check sensor 30 and a walnut regular position sensing sensor 31, the operating hinge 24 is rotated, the link 25 is pulled forwardly, the vertical bar 27, the horizontal bar 28, and the rod 41 are pulled forwardly together with each other, and then the walnut discharging cam 13 is rotated.
In this case, when the gate operating wire 17 connecting the horizontal bar 28 and the discharging gate to each other is also pulled together to pull and open the discharging gate so that the discharging gate downwardly to rotate, the walnut grain 9 slides on the walnut discharging of the walnut moving unit 4 to thereby be supplied to the mold 18 through the walnut discharging funnel 16, the walnut discharging pipe 20, and the walnut discharging tube 21.
In addition, when the operating hinge 24 fastened to the driving shaft 23 rotates to be returned, other slid units are also sequentially returned, the discharging gate is simultaneously closed by being pulled by the gate return spring 39, the stopped vibration device 7 vibrates to allow the walnut grain 9 to be positioned on the upper surface of the discharging gate, the walnut regular position sensing sensor 31 senses whether or not the walnut grain 9 enters, and then the vibration device 7 repeatedly is operated to allow the walnut grain 9 to be supplied to the mold 18 in a initial state in which it is stopped.
However, in the walnut automatic supply apparatus according to the related art, sensors sensing the walnut grain should be installed at two or more portions in order to recognize the regular position of the walnut grain, and a plurality of springs and link structures should be used in order to operate the discharging gate, thereby causing complexity of the apparatus, an increase in a manufacturing cost, and deterioration in productivity.
Further, since the mold is not accurately positioned at a position at which the walnut grain is supplied, the supplied walnut grain drops outside of the mold and a size of the walnut grain supplied to the mold is not constant, thereby not maintaining unique quality of the walnut cake.